Visiting Jake and Elwood

Julie and I decided that as we trek west, every once in a while, we'd live it up, lock up the Puffin, take a hotel and live as if we had money. Chicago was the place we would do this. Chicago was also a place that holds special memories for Julie, so there was more to the visit than just eating out and sightseeing.

We stayed at a KOA campground in Union, Illinois. It was about 55 miles outside of downtown Chicago. It's possible to dry camp out at McCormick place, but we like hook ups, especially when staying for more than a couple of days. The campground was okay. Sites were closer together than we like, and being on a pull thru site, wasn't really long enough for the Puffin and dually. Hookups were fine, but we did not hang around at the campsite much.

Union and nearby towns are surrounded by a lot of land, some farms, others just oceans of fields. Houses would dot the landscape and we drove around looking at this upon our first day/night in Union. Marengo is the next town over, where we found groceries and restaurants, all of which were of a small town vibe. We wandered into the center of Union, where we had lunch at Clasens Tavern.

It is the oldest tavern in the county, dating back to 1900. During prohibition, Clasens morphed into a post office and ice cream parlor, serving locals their adult beverages in the basement. It's a locals place and the original bar and cabinets are still there, along with generations of people whose forebearers who drank in the basement.

This is where I saw Julie eat a hamburger with PB & J & Jalapenos. I thought she would get arrested by the culinary police, but the thing is, it was tasty!

All Aboard!

A few miles from downtown Union is the Illinois Railway Museum, which was really surprising, as they had electric and steam engines, cars and reproductions of early rail life in America. Train cars from all over the country and examples of staterooms for overnight travel. You can walk through them to see the luxuries and mail cars, commuter lines, etc.

Pictured below in top right/bottom left photos are snow plows. The red guy is a snow blower and I wish we could have had one to use in New Hampshire during the winter!

There is a lot to see and do here, including taking a train ride. We spent a few hours here and came away with feeling that we'd have never seen this if it were not for RV'ing and staying in small towns. A real gem!

The Big City

We took four days to enjoy Chicago. We stayed at the Gem Museum Suites, a small hotel in Evanston, which is 15 miles north of the city.

This was an unexpected surprise place to stay because of their hospitality, cleanliness - a throw back to great hotels and customer service. We learned that the Halim Time & Glass Museum, directly across the street is where we would eat breakfast everyday. The museum owners decided to open this hotel and we're glad they did. I'm gushing.

The breakfast area of the museum is a collection of Tiffany windows, mosaics, and wonderful artworks.

Dining on the Lake

Not knowing our way around, we Ubered down to Navy Pier, to take a dinner cruise. The area is crowded with people from all over the world, with plenty of places to eat and drink. It's also where ships moor, offering tall ship cruises, jet boat thrill rides, or tours of the harbor. We were aboard the Odyssey. The cruise offers a gourmet 3 course meal and the food is like you're at your third cousins wedding - yeah, not great. But while there is the dining experience while on Lake Michigan, that's hardly the highlight of the night. When it's dark, you go up on the viewinng deck to see the skyline and fireworks - that's the real treat as far as we're concerned. Spectacular views of the city at night, with fireworks that were pretty darned good. Julie snapped some excellent pictures.

Play Ball

We were a short walk to the train station that would take us downtown, or most places in and around Chicago. Our first trip into the city was using an Uber. Today was different. We rode on the CTA, which was pretty clean and comfortable. From where we were in Evanston and the train stop at Wrigley, we walked maybe two or three blocks.

I'm a Red Sox fan, been to Fenway a lot and had the opportunity to visit other ball parks around the country. Julie knows this and came up with the idea to go to Wrigley. The Cubs were playing the Chi-Sox and were not at home, which gave us the opportunity to tour the park and learn a lot of it's history. While Fenway has a lot of history, so does Wrigley, their owners and fans. I'm not going to share a lot of what we learned, because it is well worth going there to discover some of the coolest and great things that have happened there. Maybe I should say it differently... Had I grown up in the Chicago area, I'd have been a 'bleacher bum'.

There's more to this trip and it involves Julie's father. He grew up in nearby Elmhurst and was a star athlete that caught the attention of the Chicago Bears - they wanted to sign him to the team. Yeah, he was that good. But he graduated Marquette with a degree in engineering and knew it would pay more than the Bears could, so engineering it was. But he did play on the Bears practice squad and those practices were held at Wrigley until they changed venues in the 70's. The bottom middle picture is the visitors locker room at Wrigley. It was slightly enlarged and modified over the years, but it is as it was back in the early days of Cubs history. This is where the Bears practice team changed into and out of uniforms. It gives me goose bumps to think my father-in-law was here. Lunch was deep dish pizza at Giordano's downtown, then a walk along the rivers edge. Took the train back home, stopped in at a local bar for a nightcap and then collapsed at the Gem.

Last Day in The Windy

After another breakfast, we took the train down to the North Michigan Avenue area to walk over to see the Bean in Millennium Park. Actually, the real name of this terrific sculpture is Cloud Gate. As we wandered through the park, which was overflowing with people from who knows where, we could hear beautiful music playing and were drawn to it. You can see the stage and some of the symphony members just after their rehearsals for a performance later in the week. We followed that by walking up and down Michigan Avenue, looking at the art that lines both sides and went into the Water Tower, which still is an active water source to the city of Chicago. The elevator picture is me telling Julie my latest brainstorm. Didn't go so well.

The images on the bottom of the gallery show us having dinner next to the river at one of many fine steak houses in the city, Chicago Cut Steak House. The food pictured is lobster escargo. The pictures of the sunset Julie took (on the train), as we headed back to the GEM.

Naturally when we walked back to the Gem, we stopped off for a nightcap and this hung over the bar. We didn't know they knew us.

Ancestry.Not

We spent a day visiting cemeteries and museums to learn more about Julie's grandparents. Her relations were prominent in the Elmhurst area, and includes owning a lot of the property that O'hare Airport occupies. One of the highlights was meeting up with a cousin of Julie's dad. We met at Portillo's, which is a pretty famous place for serious "Street Food". Marie Gieser came with her friend, Pat. I was mesmerized at Marie's recall of time, places and events. We have a photo that Julie has packed away in storage that shows her with her dad and her Uncle Ray. It was before we met and I wish you could see it - big, beaming smiles. It was taken at Portillo's.

Lunch with Pat and Marie was pretty cool. Julie came away with a lot more family information that we could research. A side note... Portillo's is famous for hot dogs, which is what we all ate. It's a 50's themed place, with locations all over the metro Chicago area.

I've talked about hot dogs before. But this was a first for me. The hot dog was dressed with mustard, relish, onions, lettuce, tomatoes and a dill pickle. I had two!

We spent the rest of the afternoon visiting the Elmhurst and Melrose Park areas. One of Julie's great, great relatives was a principal founder of Elmhurst and a banker. The museum is on the site of the old bank and pictured is the old vault. We tracked down the addresses of the homes of Julie's relatives that dates back to the 1800's, but they look nothing like they once were, as time, renovations and new owners updated them to their tastes. Still, it was a day filled with special emotions for Julie and I was happy to be there.

Last Day in Evanston

The Gem, allowed us all day parking before we headed back to Union. We set out to see Lake Michigan and walked through tree lined neighborhoods, passed large homes, apartment buldings and shopping districts. We were impressed with the Evanston area and thought that once RV'ing is no longer possible, this would be a place we might land.

I joked on Facebook that Julie came out of retirement and launched a new career as a crossing guard. The truth is that crossing some streets is dangerous, as cars come whizzing by at speeds that neither of us can out run and we suspect the same for others. On either side of the road are the flags that a pedestrian can use to wave to safely cross to the other side. The parks are expansive and filled with birds. I was disappointed as I was refused to join in the duck march. Happy as hell to spend time in Chicago, reluctantly we headed back to Union.

Crystal Lake is a short drive from Union, where we ate dinner at a tremendous Italian restaurant, daBaffone Cucina Italiana - owners are from Italy where there's a sister restaurant. One of the items they served was Braciola. My uncle Vinny used to make it, cooking it on his grill. Although I have no memory of how it tasted as a kid, I ordered it and it was fabulous. Actually, if we land in Evanston, it is well worth the drive to dine here, it is that good.

Julie has been holding out on me. I never knew she ran a frozen custard ice cream business.

The time in Union, Evanston, Chicago and Crystal Lake is one of our favorite memories so far, except the duck march.